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Happy 30th Birthday, Erasmus!

16/01/2017

The Erasmus programme turns 30 years old in 2017. It is one of the longest standing EU programmes and definitely one that our citizens value highly. Erasmus is a concrete policy that brings a tangible, positive impact to citizens' lives. About 4 million students have benefited from it, as well as hundreds of thousands of staff from high schools and universities.

The PES is currently trying to further develop Erasmus, to provide all European young people with a better chance for a fruitful career path and for personal enrichment.

The EU´s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, stated recently that Erasmus has been the "first taste of true independence” for many people. She is from Italy and but she studied for her PhD at the University of Aix-en-Provence in France in 1997.

Today, the Erasmus programme is one of the big lines of the EU budget, but the PES wants to make it more socially inclusive and more widely available so it can reach more of those following vocational training or still in high school.

Fun fact: One third of the students who have benefited from the programme report they met their life partners while on Erasmus. According to the European Commission, around 1 million babies have been born as a result: a generation of true Europeans.